Beware of him
Outside the gate of the community, Zuo Xiao got out of the car and was shocked to find snowflakes falling from the sky.
People in the south don't see snow often. She stood by the car and reached out to catch some. A few tiny snowflakes fell into her warm palms and turned into crystal water stains in less than two seconds.
"Are you cold?" A gentle and magnetic voice reminded her that there was a man standing beside her.
"Is this the first snow of the year?" She looked at him with bright eyes. "Shouldn't we have fried chicken and beer?"
The man in front of him obviously didn't understand the joke. He paused before saying, "Then should I find a store?"
"I was just saying that." She chuckled. "I just finished dinner, how can I eat more? Let's go!"
"Wait a minute," he said, pulling out a white fur hat from a paper bag. It was furry, like the kind an Eskimo would wear.
It's quite cute. Zuo Xiao raised an eyebrow: "Did you buy it for me?"
"Yes." He stared at her intently, "Shall I put it on you?"
Zuo Xiao nodded, her lips curled up. Zhuang Yu'an hung the paper bag on his arm, then raised the hat with both hands and covered her head very lightly and carefully.
He maintained the posture of holding her head and let go after a moment.
"Very beautiful." He looked her up and down and said seriously.
Zuo Xiao felt his head and cheeks burning under his hat. A few snowflakes landed on his face and melted almost instantly.
She turned her eyes away and smiled, "Isn't that a bit silly?"
"No," he said firmly, "It's very lively and cute, just like... just like an Arctic fox on the snowy plains."
Zuo Xiao turned his eyes back, his gaze meandering up from the collar of his dark blue navy coat, past his broad shoulders, speckled with snowflakes, past his strong jawline, past his lips and nose, as if they were carved by a knife, and finally resting on his deep, abyssal eyes. These eyes spoke, words that would never come out of his mouth.
She looked away again.
"Is this hat blessed?" she asked, smiling as she took a step forward. "Will it bless the performance?"
The man walking alongside her chuckled softly: "Not really."
She heard a few crackling sounds, and a bag of small green things appeared in front of her.
She stopped, raised her hand to take it, and examined the snack in her hand under the streetlight. It looked like a puffed food, wrapped in green plastic with a cartoon character with a grin showing two big buck teeth printed on it.
I flipped it over and it was indeed a puffed food, a creamy coconut flavored "Guai Guai." There were three lines of text written on the blank area at the bottom half of the package. Except for "Guai Guai" printed in red on the package, the rest of the text was handwritten in black water-based pen.
"The Blue Alert band's first performance went off without a hitch! All equipment and instruments were in good working order!"
Zuo Xiao read it twice and smiled: "Is this some new metaphysics?"
"A Taiwanese friend told me about it," Zhuang Yu'an explained with a smile. "He said it's very popular in Taiwan to use this snack to make wishes. It comes in different flavors and colors. Green means everything's working smoothly, and there won't be any accidents. So many celebrities put a green one on the center console during their concerts, like a kind of talisman, to bless the performance to go smoothly."
"Haha, it's really metaphysical!" Zuo Xiao laughed so hard that his shoulders shook. Zhuang Yu'an continued, "I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a week-long business trip. I'll be back on the 20th to see your performance. So, I wish you a successful performance in advance."
Zuo Xiao raised his eyebrows and said, "If I eat it, will it stop working?"
“…We can eat it after the performance is over.”
"Okay." Zuo Xiao put the snacks into his bag. "Then I'll take your kind words."
The snow fell heavier and heavier, spreading freely. The air was so cold that the tips of their noses turned red, but they walked slowly, so neither of them felt cold. Zuo Xiao would occasionally reach out to catch the snowflakes, and Zhuang Yu'an followed silently beside him.
Finally, I arrived at the bottom of the building.
Under the eaves, Zuo Xiao looked up at his short hair dotted with snowflakes and water droplets and said, "The snow is getting a bit heavy. Why don't you take an umbrella and go?"
Zhuang Yu'an hesitated for a second and nodded.
He followed her into the hallway and into the elevator.
The cramped space was so quiet that the dry creaking of the cable was particularly clear. A cold white light illuminated the two men standing side by side, the steel cage carrying them to an unknown destination.
Zuo Xiao stared at the slowly rising floor numbers, and a series of thoughts emerged in his mind.
Late at night, a man and a woman alone in an elevator. Logically, this atmosphere should be described as romantic or ambiguous, but she was filled with trepidation. But it wasn't because she hated or was afraid of the man next to her, but because...
She's not ready yet.
She was not ready to deal with the conflict in her heart, not ready for what would happen with him, not ready to define their relationship...but she could not ignore the impulse stirring deep in her body when she was enveloped by his warm gaze.
Obviously, my body is moving faster, farther, and more urgently than my heart. But this state is prone to mistakes, as evidenced by my last failed and hasty relationship.
While I was daydreaming, the elevator door opened.
Zhuang Yu'an followed her to the door of her house.
"Wait here." Her voice was slightly dry, and she didn't dare to look back at him. "I'll get an umbrella, it'll be quick."
In the brief seconds it took to enter the six-digit code to open the door, her senses were fully aroused, even the pores on the back of her neck were on guard against the man behind her. She was afraid he might suddenly ask something, hug her, or even do something more extreme... At this moment, she didn't have the confidence to refuse.
"Ding——" The door unlocked. She breathed a sigh of relief the moment a footstep entered the house.
She took a plaid umbrella and handed it to him standing outside the door. He took it without taking his eyes off her face.
Boom, boom... Whose heartbeat is it, as hot as red-hot charcoal, crackling and emitting sparks.
"Are you back?"
The voice of his roommate Jiang Yun rang in his mind. Zuo Xiao was startled and turned around abruptly, his face pale.
"Sorry, did I scare you?" Jiang Yun wiped her wet short hair and smiled apologetically, "I just came back from a business trip and didn't have time to inform you." She turned her gaze to the person outside the door with a meaningful look.
Zuo Xiao calmed himself down and said with a smile, "I was really scared by you." Then he turned around and said goodbye to Zhuang Yu'an.
The premiere was entering its final stages, and everyone was taking it very seriously. Thursday night's group rehearsal stretched into the middle of the night. Before 10 a.m., Zuo Xiao sent Zhuang Jinghao away, worried about her going home alone.
At 11 o'clock, the rehearsal ended. Zuo Xiao walked out with Qin Yufei and Peng Lei, who was clamoring to get a midnight snack.
As soon as she walked out of the Blue Lemon door, she saw someone she didn't expect.
He stood a few steps away, tall and slender, dressed elegantly and regal, like a celebrity about to depart for Paris Fashion Week. Their eyes met, and he hesitated for a moment before stepping towards her.
"How did you know I was here?" she asked.
This was obviously not the opening he had expected. Luffy paused and said, "I asked Eric and then Liang Sirui."
Zuo Xiao was furious, wanting to tell him he shouldn't have come, but now was not the time to argue with her ex-boyfriend. Turning around, she saw one of her teammates had a blank expression, while the other had a sly look on his face, practically writing "melon eater" across his features.
"You guys go down first, I'll be down soon."
Only after Peng Lei followed Qin Yufei away, looking back every few steps, did Zuo Xiao move further into the corridor. Only the Blue Lemon light was still on on this floor; the Sun couple should be coming out soon. To avoid being seen, she turned a corner before stopping.
"Why are you looking for me?" She turned to face Luffy, her voice as cold as the remaining snow outside.
Luffy's Adam's apple moved, and his voice was hoarse when he opened his mouth.
"I regret it." His eyes were red, he bit his cheek to ease the pain, and said, "I don't want to break up with you."
Zuo Xiao's heart sank. She'd guessed he'd come looking for her today to get back together, but she hadn't expected him to be so blunt. Frowning, she said coldly, "Get it, this isn't a question of whether you want it or not. It's that I don't have feelings for you anymore. I'm the one dumping you."
In the silence, the pair of slender, upturned, affectionate peach blossom eyes in front of him were gradually filled with overflowing sadness.
After a long while, he proudly uttered three words from between his teeth:
"I don't believe it."
Zuo Xiao sneered: "Believe it or not, it has nothing to do with me."
Those decisive words shattered the man's pride, along with his forced composure. "Even if..." he trembled, "I don't mind us rekindling our relationship. I just ask you not to leave me, okay?"
"Not good." Zuo Xiao felt a pang of pain in his heart, and at the same time, he felt it was ridiculous. "A good horse never turns back. If you're a man, just be straightforward. Let the past be the past. Don't dwell on it anymore, okay?"
Luffy was so sad that even his lips were trembling. He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and then seemed to have made a great decision.
"What if I say I'm willing to just be friends?" He said earnestly, "Just like when we first met, I won't do anything inappropriate to you without your permission."
"No." Zuo Xiao refused firmly, "I don't have the habit of being friends with ex-boyfriends."
Luffy paused, "Then make an exception for me."
Zuo Xiao opened his eyes wide in confusion, wondering where this man got the confidence to speak such nonsense as if it were a matter of course.
"I've made myself perfectly clear!" She mercilessly shattered his remaining illusions. "I don't like you. There's no way I'm going to get back together with you, much less play the lovers-turned-friends game with you. While we can still have a calm conversation, retract your ridiculous idea immediately. Let's all just do our work cleanly and behave respectably, okay?"
After saying that, she didn't give him a chance to refute and turned and walked away quickly.
Peng Lei held it in for the entire journey from downstairs to the car, and finally asked, "Ex-boyfriend?"
Zuo Xiao reluctantly said "hmm". He then asked, "Want to get back together?"
Zuo Xiao hummed again, and then heard a scream.
After a moment, Peng Lei clutched his chest and leaned back from the passenger seat. "No wonder I felt like that guy had a dark spot on his forehead when I saw him... Tsk tsk, how miserable! Really miserable..."
"You're too noisy." Qin Yufei said coldly in the driver's seat.
"Oh, then I'll keep my voice down." Peng Lei lowered his voice and said to Zuo Xiao, "Goddess, you won't be soft-hearted, will you?"
Zuo Xiao had long felt annoyed by him, so he rolled his eyes and didn't respond. The car finally quieted down.
Over the next few days, Zuo Xiao received flowers every day. In the morning, a large bouquet arrived on schedule. When she went to Blue Lemon, she was stopped by the front desk, who told her there were more flowers for her. Fortunately, only the flowers had arrived, not the owner, so she just tossed them in the trash.
But she remained on edge, wary of where Luffy might reappear. Outside the house, in the neighborhood, at Blue Lemon, at the restaurant she frequented, at the intersection she passed... Luffy wasn't Zhou Zhihui, his words and actions weren't as outrageous, and he didn't have anything she could hold against him. For a moment, she didn't know what else to do besides avoid him.
Soon, Zhuang Jinghao learned that Luffy had asked her to reconcile. She stamped her feet in anger and said she wanted to confront him. Zuo Xiao stopped her and scolded her, "Isn't this messy enough for you?" Only then did she stop angrily.
Two thousand kilometers away from Hong Kong.
Zhuang Yu'an had a sore throat, a large ulcer in his mouth that made even drinking water painful. He had just finished a lecture and returned to his car. He drank a sip of mineral water, and his lips throbbed with pain.
Three days ago, he learned from his sister about Luffy's misdeeds and stayed awake all night. The next morning, he woke up to an ulcer on the inside of his lower lip. His colleagues at the underwriting office bought him local herbal tea, mouth ulcer patches, and vitamin C. He took his medication strictly and maintained a light diet, but there was no improvement.
He knew that this was a heart disease and would not be easily cured.
They arrived in Shenzhen early on the morning of the 20th. They had one last roadshow in the morning, ending at 11:30. He had already booked Chen Quan a flight back to Beijing for 2:00 PM the previous day. The band's performance was due to begin at 9:00 PM, so even if the flight was delayed, they would still be able to make it.
However, plans cannot keep up with changes.
Before the roadshow officially began, the underwriters announced that a prominent figure wanted to have lunch with him. The fund manager was a renowned mutual fund manager, managing tens of billions of yuan. The underwriter expressed strong interest in Pet Planet and strongly invited Zhuang Yu'an to lunch to learn more about the project. He wanted to decline, but the underwriters strongly dissuaded him, stating that the proposed subscription amount was too substantial to refuse. So, he had to ask Chen Quan to rebook his flight to 4 p.m.
He arrived at the airport half an hour before boarding and sat smoothly in the first-class waiting lounge.
A flower basket congratulating the performance had already been ordered in his sister's name and would arrive at the venue before him. He also ordered an extra bouquet and asked his sister to keep it for him. After the performance, he would personally present it to her backstage.
He also thought about going on stage and presenting flowers in front of everyone, but he felt that such an act seemed a bit like a performance, which would make his pure and sincere heart seem pretentious. He neither needed nor cared to let irrelevant people see his feelings for her.
As my thoughts were racing, Chen Quan came over and said that the flight was delayed.
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